spending, he's gotten quite the reputation for spending money back home. i really hope congressman ryan hasn't forgotten his record since he became mr. romney's running mate. if he doesn't remember, we sure will. thanks for watching, i'm al sharpton, hardball starts right now. how much trouble is akin makin', let's play hardball 37 good evening. i'm chris matthews. let's start with mitt romney. now, hear this. if you want to speak with mr. romney now and in the future, you are not to ask him about what he doesn't want to be asked about. today's list of question, anything on todd akin, anything on abortion, themes the rules,

we're told 37 you want to talk to mr. romney, ask about him and -- he wants us to talk about. has it gotten this bad? are we now in the world of third world dictatorships where the big man acts now by decree, ask what i tell you to ask. let's hear from rick tower and ron reagan. have you seen this story that's out today, the the cbs affiliate reporter said that in order to get an interview with the candidate of the republican party for president, it's important that you not ask any question about what's in the news right now. you must not ask anything about todd akin, you must not ask anything about the party's position. these are the rules. >> i don't understand how he thinks this is going to fly. it's certainly not going to fly in televised debates where he'll look like a fool if he takes that stance and i don't think it will fly on the trail, either. if you tell them they can't ask a certain question, what do you think the first question is going to be? >> i know. >> of course they're going to

ask about akin and abortion and everything else. these are legitimate question. he strikes me as a guy who's the ceo who's just used to getting his own way, he can tell anybody anything 37 you can't do this and that, bow down to him. it doesn't work that way when you're running for president. >> you know, rick, it reminds me of what i know is the political press and the the business press. as ceo of a major u.s. corporation, he could deny access to the press and perhaps protect himself or herself from any coverage. but if you're running for president, you're not dealing with the business press, you're dealing with the happy go lucky persistent political press who knows what the headline is tonight and goes for it. >> i would add if you're president of the united states, you can avoid the press and only take a conference when bad news hits the republican party. because the todd akin story hit the fan, so chris, come on. how can you say -- >> president obama ever tell the press not to ask him any questions?

don't ask me about what's in the news? >> they won't even face the press. >> excuse me. there's a difference between not having a press conference and dictating what the questions should be at the press conference. >> wait a minute -- doesn't the president stand up there every time he does a press conference and list off the names of the people -- >> but he doesn't list the questions. here's the background. today, a reporter from the denver affiliate of cbs says she was given a set of rules limiting her interview with mr. romney. no questions on todd akin or abortion. let's hear how she explains it. >> political specialist shaun boyd just finished an interview with romney just literally a couple minutes ago. shaun is with me now. you were one of only four local reporters to get to talk to him. what did you ask him?

>> i had about five minutes with him and we got a fair amount of material 37 the one stipulation was that i not ask him about abortion or todd akin, the missouri republican who created a fire storm after saying women's bodies shut down in a legitimate rape to prevent pregnancy. i did ask him about the female vote and energy. >> well, the obama campaign quickly circulated a statement saying no questions about akin or abortion were allowed in that interview saying it's no surprise why on tuesday, the republican party's officially endorsed the akin amendment. which would ban abortion for all women and paul ryan has struggled to explain his support for redefining forcible rape, he calls it. mitt romney's campaign might be abt to muzzle reporters, but women across america deserve to know the truth. that's party talk there. we should note that the romney campaign pushed back on story this afternoon, but their spokesperson didn't deny it either. so rick, i want to go back to you, because you're argumenttive

tonight. which is appropriate on "hardball." do you think they can take their way out of this by saying this is an odd case, we don't prescribe what a reporter is not supposed to ask? >> i think in general, both the president and the people running for president, the nominee, mitt romney, should in general not set up ground rules or at least excessive ground rules or dictate what the press can or can't ask. you're right. it's going to backfire. i just point out that the president is as guilty as mitt romney, but i think as a general rule, you should be open to the press. >> okay, let's talk about -- dictatorship is a good word. it used to be there were party organizations run. will rogers famously said i belong to no organized political party. they had leaders. they met. they organized to decide whose turn it was. whether it's w.'s turn or some kid's turn, you know how it works. except you never got that turn. in the republican party. but now, let's take a look at the republican leaders who have

trashed this guy, todd akin, and have said get out of the race so we don't have to talk about you. that's the big story plaguing republicans right now. let's see this lineup of establishment bold print names saying get out of the race and see what happens. >> i can't defend what he said. i can't defend him. >> he should have dropped out of the race. >> i'm suggesting that he get out. >> they've asked him to step down. >> i think he should get out. >> if it was me and i had an opportunity to let someone else run and give ourself as better chance of winning, i would step aside. >> those are the boldface names i mentioned in the republican leadership. it doesn't seem to matter, because people like tony perkins, of the family council are still behind akin. it seems like in the modern party of the 21st century, you don't need the party chairs, the women, the moderates who worry about winning general elections. all you need is a niche to hide

in, to back you and comfort you on the hard right. >> and you'll notice that republicans are calling for todd akin to leave are not doing so because they disagree with the substance such as it is, that he said, they simply think he's a loser now, and he'll lose to claire mccaskill and they'll lose their chance to take over the senate. that's why they want him to leave. our vice presidential candidate agrees with akin. he cosponsored legislation with todd aiken about forcible rake, redefining rape with todd akin 37 paul ryan is todd akin and todd akin is the republican party now to their detriment. >> isn't that true in effect, that when the republican party has drafted well apparently ratified this coming monday, that there's to be no abortions under any circumstances, even rape and that's really what's behind that is paul ryan's argument is that forcible rape even that shouldn't be included in some of this personhood

amendment stuff. it is the hard right philosophy of most of the delegates, apparently, isn't it? >> todd akin's an honorable man who said something thoughtless for which he's apologized for, for which the entire republican party has condemned him for. i don't know what more we could do to him, perhaps we can dismember him, put sacissors in the back of his head and suck his brains out -- >> how about repudiating what he actually said. what he actually said and not just complaining he might not -- >> as far as the -- >> no, they haven't. >> yes, they have. >> no, they have not. >> ron -- would you want them to repudiate is -- >> even he -- this idea of the magical sperm killing, spe spermicidal females -- >> has paul ryan repudiated that? i haven't heard him mention that in particular. >> i want -- you disagree with the charge that this strange co

commentary that todd akin said -- here's what he said. there ought to be some punishment for rape. there ought to be some. what a strange thing to say. but it should be for the person who did the raping, but also it should include legitimate rape. what i think he meant is that he didn't trust a lot of women who said they were raped. which i thought was offensive and for him to say i misspoke, it wasn't like i got the wrong capital of new jersey. i meant to say trenton, wasn't a mistake or misstatement, it was a real difference of opinion on principle, i thought. >> it was a thoughtless statement. we've all staid this over and over again. the democrats -- look, our party -- we said it, distanced him, practically throw him out of the party. yet we can have interns in the white house, male prostitution

ring, and democrats in the basement of the white house in the kkk, democrats will defend that. look, this is the one thing and as far as radical -- >> did you just go back and whip barney frank one last time? how far back do you want to go? >> and the fact is -- >> the fact is, this is not a difference of opinion, it's a matter of fact. women do not have spermicidal secretions when they are raped. that's fantasy. that's what todd akin preferred though. >> i want to go back to a strong position rick may hold here. one good shot here. rick, as the republican party leadership, people like romney, the presumed nominee of the party, reince priebus, the chairman of the party, do they no longer enjoy true authority? are they respected as leaders in the party who can say to the republicans in missouri, you

shouldn't have this guy as your nominee for senator and therefore, you should find someone else and get him to remove himself? have they lost that authority? >> well, they've all said that. look, it's governed not only by party rules, it's governed by legalities and right now, todd akin holds the cards here. he can decide whether to run or not. the leaders only can lead so far as people want to follow. you can proclaim yourself a leader, but if nobody's following you, they're not going to follow you. but the party structure has always been that way. >> but has the hard right, the people very far over on that side, the tea party people -- the ones like murdoch, who knocked off -- who is that? lugar up in indiana, knocked off bob bennet, are they really stronger compared to the party leadership than they were? >> they're organized and they're organized and show up and go to the meetings and get their people elected and recruit and campaign. so if other people with other

points of view, other than i imagine you're talking about the tea party, want to organize, then they can be in charge too. the tea party figures out we want to participate and take the power. >> one last thought, ron. i think you said this today in one of the interviews today. i think the difference between president reagan and the republican party today, president reagan had concern for pro-life. but i don't think he went around spinning this extreme action trying to push it through and really trying to outlaw and ban it. i think he said it was wrong to have an abortion, but i don't think he went as far as these people, that even if year raped, have you to have that baby. >> to my knowledge, he never attended a single anti-choice rally. the republican party has created a frankenstein over the last decades. they've pandered to, propagated ignorance. now, ignorance is coming back to bite them and wants a seat at the table in the form of todd akin, paul ryan and many other members of congress who agree

about this weird female spermicide legitimate rape stuff. there are a lot of republicans on that team now. >> wait a minute, ron, didn't the president give an interview in 2003 -- >> i believe that after 22 weeks, there are conditions for abortion. >> let me just say, 2003, the president said that he would support abortion in all cases, including third trimester. and yet the democratic party thinks that -- >> you have to show me that quote. >> i'll send it to you. >> okay, thank you very much. by the way, one other applaud for your dad, i'll say this. he would not have taken us into that idiotic war in iraq. no way in the world would the neocons have pushed him into that war like they did with that guy w. who had nothing in his head to fight back with. coming up, who do you trust when it comes to medicare, president obama has the edge. is he ahead by enough to win in those states? will medicare help win a tough

state like florida? also, remember those navy s.e.a.l.s who criticized obama, now, some others are defending the president. they say the charge that he failed to praise the men who pulled off the mission is simply not true. truth ought to matter, don't you think? see if you can guess what two groups are upset by this anti romney ad. ♪ i'm a romney girl in a romney world life is taxes it's fantastic ♪ ♪ silver tip your hair tax shelters everywhere ♪ >> okay, well, half the answer's easy, the romney camp is upset. but who else? let me finish tonight with how romney's gotten deeper and deeper in bed with the right wing thanks to this akin mess. and the hard right positions of paul ryan. this is "hardball." the place for politics. a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. v8. what's your number?

when paul ryan helped carry the home state of wisconsin? the university of minnesota's

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welcome back to "hardball." well, medicare's been front and center in in campaign. and following mitt romney's pick of paul ryan for a vp, even a bigger issue. but it's a hot topic benefits for the president for sure 37 in a new quinnipiac poll, in three battleground states, not only do americans want to keep the program as it stands, they believe the president would do a better job on medicare generally. in ohio, obama leads romney by ten points. in florida, obama leads romney by eight points, in wisconsin, by nine. this is on the issue of who will do a better job on taking care of medicare?

and also our msnbc political analyst, i want to start with gene on this. the old rule of politics is don't step into the other guy's topic because you'll always lose. if you're a democrat, don't talk about cutting spending. because they'll probably believe the republican. it used to be, if you wanted to talk about being tough on the economies, if you're a democrat, it wouldn't be your favorite issue. medicare, republicans since reagan went back have opposed medicare. the ama was their partner this opposing it. why would they start talking about something they have never been credible on? >> i think they decided to try something new this year figuring that with paul ryan on the ticket, they were especially vulnerable on medicare. try to turn the opponent's strength and partially neutralize the issue.

i doubt they're under the illusion that they're going to win on this issue, but maybe not lose quite as badly as they otherwise would. >> let me go to robert on that. seems to me if you're an elderly person, later 70s, 80s and you're still cooking and voting and you hear somebody's coming along the tinker with your medicare, which is the one thing you've been able to count on in your later years, the one thing. you've been able to get your medical bills paid for. and this guy comes along and says, i've got this new idea, i'm going to voucherize someone. i want to know who's going to insure someone who's 82 37 what are we talking about here? the insanity of the ryan plan, i got to first of all, go find the insurance company and then see what they're going to charge me? they're not going to charge me something cheaper than medicare. >> romney and ryan may think it's pretty cagey. i've spent three days in the past ten with ryan on the trail and almost every speech he gives, in the first two or three minutes, he's right on to medicare. he doesn't sidestep the issue, they're confronting directly 37

from what i hear in boston is that romney's whole gamble and it may be a political gamble, with putting ryan on the ticket, should he win, he's going to have to address medicare if he's president of the united states. so might as well be up front about his views so he can have a mandate should he win. >> that's fair enough, he will get a mandate on this issue if he wins, but gene back to your question. suppose you're a woman in this country watching this show now. someone in your 40s to 60s and you've got an ageing parent and you're thinking i'm going to take my mother, find an insurance company, after she's had some medical problems, who doesn't in the age of the 70s and 80s, and i've got to find her an insurance policy that can be paid for by paul ryan's voucher. it seems like you're just messing with people here. your thoughts. >> i think it's not just that. not just people thinking about their elderly parents or their parents themselves, but people 40 to 60 who may well believe ryan that you're not going to be affected right now, but if

you're 40 to 60, you would be, most of those people would be voucherized at some point under ryan's plan and they know they're familiar with the sort of infirmities that elderly people have, and familiar with insurance markets. i don't think there is not a mandate in the country for making medicare into a voucher program. there just is not and i don't think there's going to be. >> it does seem there's an age issue here, robert. let's look at the states we're looking at tonight. the three states obama keeps this lead, in ohio, the president's up over romney 50-44. now, that's pretty healthy. in florida, the president has a three-point lead. not much there. 49-46. wisconsin is the closest of the three. the president's up by two. i think that may have something to do, if the poll's recent enough with the selection of mr. ryan, who's the home state guy, from wisconsin. but my question is are these big enough?

has the republican candidates by pushing this issue, eroded somewhat the natural democratic advantage on medicare? >> look, it's a nice balance for president obama, but if i was the president, i wouldn't be too confident about a state like wisconsin. i've spoken to paul ryan about this many times. he comes out of a purple district. he keeps winning there by large margins. ryan always tells me and unless you address this head on, the democrats will be able to define the entire debate. that's how ryan's really changed the entire party 37 romney couldn't avoid this issue. if romney was avading it, he's be getting heat from the right. >> i can't wait for the debate between joe biden and this guy, paul ryan. because there's a real generational piece here, and bide an's going to be very good on the constituent service on this. he will tell you case after case after case of people in delaware he's helped with medicare issues. and the other guy will be a little colder on that, he won't

be quite as winsome when it comes to real people and their lives. >> what about that image of paul ryan in florida with the 78-year-old mother who's on medicare? you're going to see that at the convention. >> keep trying, fella, keep trying. we'll see who wins on that battle. this is home turf for the dems. thank you. up next, one of the big things of next week is we built it. as in private enterprise, not the government. but take a guess who built the arena where the convention is being held. that's a little factoid people might be noting. it's actually built with government money. this is hardball, the place for politics.

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back to "hardball." will the republican convention fall victim to bad timing on more than one account? here's david letterman on the

todd akin situation and the hurricane named isaac. >> a potential hurricane is heading to florida, however, no cause for alarm. according to todd akin, florida rarely suffers damage from a legitimate hurricane! representative todd akin. >> it's time for nobody cares. oh. ♪ >> well, first of all, let me say -- >> well, he's not only -- david only taking note of one of fod akin's situations. but actually, he's head of the house science and technology committee. look at this. actually, he's head of the, on the house sciences and technology committee. at a fund-raiser in new york

last night, the interesting thing here, todd akin is on the house science and technology committee, but somehow. another note on the republican convention, remember president obama pointing out that business owners, depending on public projects like roads, republicans twisted that remark to make it sound as if the entrepreneurs themselves didn't deserve credit for their suck tess. the theme of the second night will be we built this. get it? we built this. not the oppressive government. but hang on. the building where the convention is being held, the tampa bay times forum was built in large part thanks to government funding. the 1996 project had a budget of $139 million, 62% of which or $86 million, came from public money. more than half. so republicans, remember where you are. next, what could cause a republican judge in texas to call for a tax increase? bring on county judge tom head and his concern if president obama is re-elected, it could start a civil war and that could cost money for him. let's watch. >> he is going to try and hand over the sovereignty of the

united states to the u.n. what's going to happen when that happens? i'm thinking worst case scenario. >> i understand. >> civil unrest, disobedience, civil war maybe. we're not talking a few riots here and demonstrations. we're talking lexington, concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy. i don't want a bunch of rookies back there. >> true. >> i want trained, equipped, seasoned veteran officers to back me. >> what a case. anyway, the president giving up the country to the united nations? he used that bird brain scenario to justify a potential tax hike needed to beef up military personnel. how would you like to have this character in court passing judgment on you? judge head. remember that name. finally, who might be less than pleased with this ad starring romney girl. >> hi, romney! >> hi, miss. >> do you have something to hide? >> well, yeah, jump in. ♪ i'm a romney girl in a romney

world life is taxless it's fantastic ♪ ♪ silver tip your hair tax shelters everywhere ♪ ♪ bain is his creation ♪ he's a boss millionaire with accounts everywhere he'll disclose all the dough he's making ♪ >> she looks like the girl from the st. pauley beer commercial. easy to see why mitt romney wouldn't be a fan, but how about the swiss government whose department for foreign affairs released a statement saying the video promotes the idea that the only idea to have a swiss bank account is to hide money from the tax authorities. up next, a group of navy s.e.a.l.s is now coming to president obama's defense. that's ahead here on "hardball." you're watching it, the place for politics.

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hi, everyone, i'm alex wit, here's what's happening. storm warnings for the bahamas, puerto rico and florida. the 1,000 mile wide storm could reach florida monday. a prosecutor says james holmes made threats before last month's attack and had been barred from the university of colorado. stocks tumbled amid word that the fed may not be planning new stimulus measures after all. back to "hardball." welcome back to "hardball," as we reported last week, a group of special operations forces and cia officers many

with ties to the republican party, the tea party groups and birthers have launched an attack on president obama over his handling of the bin ladin raid last year. they accused the president of leaking information about operation and taking too much credit for its success. here's part of a 20-minute video they put online. >> they didn't, this administration didn't capture or kill or eliminate bin laden or anybody else. there's a whole lot of folks in the military, intelligence committee, who have been working on this for a very long time. >> mr. president, you did not kill osama bin laden. america did. the work that the american military has done killed osama bin laden. you did not. >> wow. well, this week, the group came under strong criticism from fellow special forces and other military leaders. some say the group is breaking a central creed, respect for the commander in chief. the associated press quotes one green beret who wrote on his

facebook page, "this is an unprofessional, shameful action on the part of the operators who appear in the video, period." on tuesday, the head joint chiefs of staff appeared with his criticism. >> the american people don't want us to be another special interest group. if someone uses the uniform, whatever uniform it is, for partisan politics, i'm disappointed by that. because i think it does a road that bond the trust with the american people. >> so, did this group cross the line? i think so. but will their message find a receptive group on the right? i'm going to start with spencer. let me ask you about this group. it seemed to be marbled in hear with people of the birther persuasion, who are

incredibly -- well, i think nuts. but they believe in some conspiracy theory that mrs. obama, the mother of president obama somehow conjured up this notion her son would one day be president. so she managed to marry a guy from africa with the name obama. then figured out well, i'll have the baby over in africa, then lie about it and put out newspaper accounts where he was really born. what an insane way to have your brain worked to think that somebody would ever think like that and pull it off and for what purpose? if you wanted your son to be president, you'll probably marry joe martin across the street who has an ivy league education. and everything is figured out ahead of time. it's insane. this guy ben smith really gets to me. >> this is an organization that really kind of gets laughed at when i've had conversations with the people in the military and pentagon around it. not a lot of people view it credible. it's one thing to make a

critique about leaks, it's quite another thing to inject yourself in the middle of a political campaign and get the uniform involved in it. >> does this have nothing to do with their military role r, more are their ideology on the right? >> it's hard to understand how they'd get any traction. as a cover to make this sort of strange critique of obama, this is a president who's prosecuted more leakers than any other previous one to the consternation of civil libertarian organizations. >> foreign policy magazine reports that one of the main spokes men in this group, ben smith has put this out on his blog. you are an imposter. you are a muslim. you are the manchurian president, may you go back to the country you were born in, you little, little man and take all your communist supporters with you. that is the thinking hind this guy.

>> thanks for having me. one of the things we have to sort of look at here is this has been a well coordinated campaign that started this year. the new group led by the birther is the third political, the third super pac that has come out to attack obama over the bin laden raid and over national security leaks. it seems to be well funded. there have been allegations from democratic groups that karl rove is the one behind it and we're going to see more of it. next week at the republican convention, they're having an event where they're going to have former navy s.e.a.l.s and special forces guys, even u.s. senators, i was told today, up on stage talking about this. >> what's rove's involvement? >> the evidence is circumstantial. he's tweeted in favor of the group. and he's also been featured prominently on one of the web pages, which is one of the three

super pacs involved here. >> we'll see about that as we drop this story. the video does some selective editing of the president's speech to make it seem like he took all the credit and never thanked the intelligence and military teams. in reality, we all know the president's rarely given a speech where he hasn't credited those who did the work in that case and took the risks. here are a few examples that have been overlooked in the editing room by the people that made this video. let's watch what he really said. >> over the last ten years, thanks to the tireless and heroic work of our military and counterterrorism professionals, we've made great strides in that effort. thanks to the incredible skill and courage of countless individuals over many years, the leader who struck our nation on 9/11 will never threaten america again. because of the sacrifices now of a decade and a new greatest generation, slowly and

systematically, we have been able to decimate the ranks of al-qaeda. and a year ago, we were able to finally bring osama bin laden to justice. >> you know, even in casual conversation with somebody high up with the nfc, you get a very strong impression from them that they know darn well this wasn't a partisan operation to go get bin laden. the best people to have working with -- the team they worked with are totally not partisan. these people that work nfc, they aren't democrats. or liberals or whatever. it's a mixed bag of americans doing their duty and they're incredibly good at it. >> right and i think you know, what we're seeing here politically obviously is the president's opponents taking one of his greatest strengths and accomplishments and trying turn it into -- that's classic rove.

and it's not an accident in a right now the obama campaign is fighting back against this really hard. they've been silent. the white house has sort of been silent on this, but now, they're punching back saying hey, making the points you said. the military should not be involved in these partisan activities. >> i think the whole swift voting of john kerry was sleazy. this is in the same league -- there's something really bad about people who engage in this. let people do what they do for their country and move on. thank you. up next, dirty, angry money, and now we're learning a lot of it is anonymous. it's subsidized by you, the taxpayer, because these groups are getting tax breaks. so they can spend their money secretly on the candidates of their choice. we're going find more about this bad money in politics when we come back. this is "hardball." the place for politics. ends with our babysitter. no. these work, right? no. all right. mom! look what i found in the shed! no! no! no! ♪ ew! were you guys just making out in here? what? no! is it okay if i quit my job and start a blog?

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in a new tv ad set to run in eight swing states, bill clinton takes to the camera to argue for his second obama term. >> this election to me is about which candidate is likely to return us to full employment. this is a clear choice. the republican plan is to cut more taxes on upper income people and go back to deregulation. that's what got us in trouble in the first place. president obama has a plan to rebuild america from the ground up. investing in innovation, education and job training. it only works if there is a strong middle class. that's what happened when i was president. we need to keep going with his plan. >> if i were obama, i'd marry that guy.

anyway, big bill trying to bring home those middle class voters president obama knows he needs in order to win re-election. we'll be right back. gomery and abigail higgins had... ...a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit. which provided for their every financial need. and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you.

welcome back. as you just saw, we call our segments on money and politic, dirty, angry money. now, there's a new twist. dirty, angry, anonymous and taxpayer subsidized money. a new report by propublica, proves the second two are true as well. the report found that 501c4s do

little or nothing to justify those subsidies they receive from the taxpayers. instead, they are pouring much of their resources into political races and that means you, the taxpayer, are picking up the tab and donors to these groups, the majority of this so far in 2012 support republican causes, get to stay anonymous. well, to demonstrate how powerful these groups can be, here's an ad from one that helped take down a 14-term well respected democratic congressman. >> it's the worst economy in decades. and the folks in washington are living it up, spending our tax dollars like there's no tomorrow. leading this big song and dance, obama, of course, and nancy pelosi. but there's one face you might not expect to see. our old friend, john spratt. as budget committee chairman, spratt approved billions in deficit spending without missing a beat. let's pull the plug on this song an dance once and for all. join mick mulvaney's fight

against the big spenders in washington. >> they found the commission on hope, growth and opportunity, a non-profit social welfare group, paid for this ad and a series of others at an estimated cost of $2.3 million. the group a estimated cost of $2.3 million but they reported no spending to the fe krerks. and on the tax returns said it spent nothing to influence elections. . john might disagree, he lost the election. kim uncovered this story, richard wolf is an nbc analyst. how did they get to spend all this money to beat john sprout in south carolina, and now two years later the irs has not caught up with them. >> that's a really good question that should be asked to the irs. i'm hardly the first to talk about this group. we looked at more than 100

groups that spent money on politics. some are very valid. this is one of the examples that you just looked at and thought why is nothing happening. what's the point of having rules? >> why are they nonprofit? >> because they said they are. they applied to the irs, they said we want to be a social welfare nonprofit. we're going to help the american public, publish i think they called econometric stead yous and we're going to take those to the american public and to congressmen and change policy, and that's what they said in order to get their application for recognition by the irs approved and they approved them within weeks. they told the irs they would spend nothing on politics. >> why would carl rove ever be

trusted be an irs agent to do something nonpolitical with his money. we all grew up knowing there is a 4013 c. and this is a 40134 that's like it. and you have people like crossroads gps that can keep their do nations anonymous. >> it's offensive, but these are supposed to be public welfare and public education groups. kim is reporting what fits the definition of public welfare here. they are shining a light on how this system is abused. it's clear they don't have the resources to go after this. we're in a political situation where congress, members of the republican party, are wanting to defund operations where the ir sex was involved in health care

reform. how political would you have to be as a made istomin strags to beach up irs policing or enforcement a tax code. it's clearly an abuse of the irs. >> are there any groups using this tax dodge? kim? >> most definitely. we took a look at the 2010 election, because that was the only election that you could get the tax returns for. and compare the tax returns and their applications with what they told the federal election commission. and we found liberal groups and progressive groups that did it. >> have they been out there doing this trash talk about people like john? are they going into the ditch politically to destroy republicans on the other side? have they done this kind of dirty business? >> the same kind of ads. not as creative but they have

done ads against republicans and you don't have any idea where the money is coming from, definitely. >> you hear from peek like george will, let's go through all of this policing and make sure everything is online. from modern technology, have it listed on the website, at least there is transparency. here you have the right wing and some on the left exploiting the opportunity not to be transparent. >> and republicans are better at this this time around. if you cannot deal with the free speech part of this, can we clean up the tax code so that people are not pretending to be public welfare organizations. we can have fairness, openness, and technology. >> you can find out who is giving money to somebody.

kim barker, great reporter, and i think you have broken ground here. when we return, let me finish tonight with mitt romney. he is so deep in bed with the right wing of his party, he cannot crawl back to the center for anybody. you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more processed flakes look nothing like natural grains. i'm eating what i know is better nutrition. mmmm. great grains. search great grains and see for yourself. with less chronic osteoarthritis pain. imagine living your life with less chronic low back pain. imagine you, with less pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain.

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let me finish tonight with the wayward shift of the right party. i thought it president obama was

to lose this election, it would be candidates believe both candidates were to the left of where they say that are. obama would successfully be accused of a larger government involvement. now given the events of the last week, i think that scenario is highly unlikely. it's increasingly obvious that mitt romney has married the right wing of his party, the no taxers, the religious right, the hard liners against abortion rights. he's not nor can he be confused with the guy who pushed health care in massachusetts. that called himself stronger on gay rights than ted kennedy. i think the rise of todd aiken, the picking of paul ryan, the whole menu means that romney